House Of Reps Expected To Vote On Short-Term Govt Funding Measure At 17:40ET

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is expected to hold a House of Representatives vote at around 17:40 ET 22:40 BST today on his short-term government funding plan. Johnson's measure, which would extend government funding for six months - paired with the partisan SAVE Act - is expected to fail for a second time amid opposition from Democrats, Republican conservatives, and Republican national security hawks.

• Although Johnson hasn’t articulated a 'Plan B', most observers believe the vote is likely to trigger the Senate into initiating action on a compromise ‘clean CR’ that would extend funding for three months.
• Senior House appropriator Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) said in an interview: “It’ll fail, then we’ll go back and do something that’s to the end of the year clean. That’s just reality. We’ve been through this drill enough times...’”
• Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) told reporters: “We’re giving them some space, I think, and hopefully they’ll be able to execute and produce something by the end of the week.”
• Top GOP appropriator Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) told Punchbowl News: “The appropriators have not been asked [yet] to get together to start working. But time is growing very short.”
• Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said yesterday: “One thing you cannot have is a government shutdown. It would be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election, because certainly we’d get the blame.”
• If Congress doesn't legislate a stop-gap funding measure, the government will partially shut down on October 1.